The Hoax of the Century: Hearing Implants

While many people may fantasize about marketing cochlear implants to parents of Deaf newborns, several American Sign Language (ASL) groups advocate that the lifestyle isn't for every Deaf baby who can "listen and speak" ... "on cue." To this end, our American society is far from shy when it comes to realizing that hearing implanted people do not hear the way hearing people normally do. "We are against hearing implanted babies to acquire ASL because it is an uphill battle," They reasoned implicitly, "We must fight against their being Deaf."

Most parents of hearing implanted babies are selected for ignorance and feeblemindedness. For example, there was a single mother who wanted her sons to hear her for the first time but she failed to realize that what her boys heard was synthetic. Synthetic sounds are like instant tea or McDonald's Big Mac.

Let me explain that Deaf babies are not generally born to be hearing. Actually, 80 percent of the hearing implanted people I met in these past two months told me some horrified stories about mapping. Most of them became depressed and frustrated.

Cochlear implants (CI) is a billion-dollar business that has captured wide public attention, most average people aren't aware exactly how big a role CI corporates play in deception and advertising industries. We need to push to see to it that hearing impanted people get compensated for their "listening and speaking" efforts.

The public looks for truths in a big way. It helps parents of Deaf babies draw the line between perception, which could involve gruesome struggles, and reality. But what precisely are the realities of being a hearing implanted baby? More to the point, what is life like for these implanted babies, and what options exist for parents who want to give their baby a lot more work than they realize. It can sometimes take two years to prep for a 20-second near-native pronunciation scene, a share of the hoax.

Yes, it's the hoax that inspired a great many people and institutions. Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, for example, got inspired to uphold this hoax with its master plan for Sorensopn Language and Communication Center (SLCC) to lure hearing implanted people to walk through the language and culture of the Deaf showcase. The effort by Gallaudet University in promoting such a hearing perception has absolutely nothing to do with higher learning. CI is best understood in the English phrase, "keeping up with the Joneses."

Yes, hearing implant for Deaf babies is a hoax, a high profile hoax, the hoax of the century.